Tag: Wordpress

New header photo

Thanks to all my blogger friends for their advice on my new theme!

I looked through my photos and found one I thought would crop well as a new header image.

Boiler House Poets and people familiar with North Adams, Massachusetts may recognize the street sign. It was just outside the apartments where we stayed during the Tupelo Press/Mass MoCA residency. (If you want to know more about the residency, check my blog archive for November, 2015.)

I will leave it to my readers to ponder the deep inner meaning of Center Street being one way and what that has to do with the Top of JC’s Mind…

I still wish I could make the title/tagline font larger, but I think it doesn’t look quite so tiny with the header image breaking it apart from the larger-font post title.

It just occurred to me that my link to my “About” page got lost in the shuffle of the theme change. I guess that will be my next problem to solve.

I’d appreciate any comments/musing/interpretations on the new header image.

With thanks,
JC

 

A new look

I’m trying out WordPress’s 2016 theme. I had been using Plane, but decided to give this new theme a go.

You don’t have to look at a header image of the top of my head!

I like that my tagline is more readable now, but I wish the title font was larger.

This theme does meet my main criteria for readability, black print in an easy to read font on a white background.

What do you think? Please let me know in the comments section.

With thanks,
JC

Thank you to the authors who participated in our poetry and prose series during 2015

I am so glad that to have found Silver Birch Press in 2015! I am so pleased to have been part of five of these series:
All About My Name
My Perfect Vacation
My Sweet Word
When I Hear That Song
Me, During the Holidays

What will 2016 bring? It will be exciting to experience it!

silverbirchpress's avatarSilver Birch Press

thank you
During 2015, the Silver Birch Press blog featured 10 poetry and prose series. Many thanks to all who participated. All told, our 2015 writing prompts generated 965 poems and stories — the vast majority written specifically for our series. Amazing!

IAM WAITING Poetry Series (Dec. 1, 2014 – Jan. 31, 2015): 137 participants

WHERE I LIVE Poetry & Photography Series(Feb. 1 – March 31, 2015): 132 participants

ME, AS A CHILD Poetry Series (April 1 – May 31, 2015): 175 participants

ALL ABOUT MY NAME Poetry Series (June 1 – July 18, 2015): 160 participants

MY PERFECT VACATION Poetry & Prose Series (July 19 – Aug. 21, 2015): 71 participants

MY METAMORPHOSIS Poetry & Prose Series (Aug. 22 – Sept. 15, 2015): 52 participants

MY SWEET WORD Poetry & Prose Series(Sept. 16 – Oct. 31, 2015): 98 participants

WHEN I HEAR THAT SONG Poetry & Prose Series

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Top of JC’s Mind’s Annual Report

My regular readers know that I only occasionally look at my stats, but WordPress has helpfully compiled an annual report for me to share with all of you.
https://topofjcsmind.wordpress.com/2015/annual-report/
All of you stats fans can read it! I would like to point out that, while it looks like I do not follow the blog of Ellen, one of my top commenters, I actually do. It isn’t a WordPress blog, though, so it isn’t showing up as followed on the list. I wouldn’t want anyone to think I was dissing Ellen’s lovely blog!

I was chuckling over the map. While it says that Canada and the UK are not far behind the US in blog visits, they really are far behind. US has 5,676, while Canada has 512 and the UK has 218. Interestingly, India has 218 also but didn’t show up in the caption.

Thank you all for your visits and comments in 2015! I hope I will write interesting posts to keep you coming back in 2016.

Peace and best wishes for the new year,
Joanne

Publication Party!

Yesterday, Sappho’s Circle, a newly formed local women’s poetry workshop, had our first publication party. What this means is that members gathered with laptops – and snacks – to work on submitting our poems to publications.

Our leader Heather has access to lots of great resources to help us choose among the hundreds of venues available. She also has lots of experience, having been published in many different journals over the years. She has even been nominated for a Pushcart Prize!

I decided to send a submission to Eunoia Review which publishes two pieces (poems, fiction, creative non-fiction) online daily. Bonus: I am now following them on WordPress, so I will get a daily digest from them.

This submission was a bit different from the type I usually do. It was high-volume – ten poems in one submission; the most I had ever submitted at once was five. You could submit both unpublished and previously published work.  You were not allowed, though, to submit anything that was under consideration elsewhere. Usually, that would be a non-starter for me, who appreciates the flexibility of simultaneous submissions, but the timing was right as I had very little that was still out for consideration. Eunoia Review also makes up for the stricture with an incredibly rapid turnaround time, usually under 24 hours!

So I spent the bulk of the session yesterday assembling ten poems to submit, starting with the six I had prepared in anticipation of the publication party and adding four others, three of which were previously published. I hit send just a few minutes before we wrapped up the party at 4:00.

By evening, I had an answer!  I’m pleased to announce that Eunoia Review will be publishing my poem “The Last Night” sometime in early January, 2016. There will no doubt be an excited post here at Top of JC’s Mind with the link when it becomes available!

Now, I have lots of thank yous to send out. First, to Ian of Eunoia Review for reading my submission and accepting “The Last Night.” To my poet friends at Binghamton Poetry Project, Sappho’s Circle, and Bunn Hill Poets, all of whom were a huge help in revisions of this poem, which has gone through more drafts than any other poem I have ever written. And a huge THANK YOU to Heather for her support and for helping me to find a good home for “The Last Night.”

I urge everyone to check out Eunoia Review and follow them. There’s so much great stuff there to read, with more added daily. I’m so honored that I will be part of it!

Most likes!

While watching the first Democratic Party debate, I am also perusing some blog posts and got a notification that today, Tuesday, October 13, 2015 is my best day for likes ever here at Top of JC’s Mind. Yay!!!

And there are a couple of hours left, so who knows if I may wind up with more than the 49 that has set the new record for me?

Thanks to all my visitors! I appreciate you stopping by!

header

I just updated my header image, partly because Jay Dee of “I Read Encyclopedias for Fun” is doing a series where he writes about blogs of those who comment on his blog frequently. Which I do. And I’m trying to not be totally embarrassed when he has to say that my cover image is grainy and doesn’t appear to be anything recognizable.

Anyone who visits here knows that I am not good with images, despite my attempts to improve. I have trouble taking photos, enhancing, cropping, sending them to the right site, and more, but I was determined to at least get a new header image that was clearer, so I grab my iPad and went in search of a spot to take a close-up of the top of my head.  I chose an art quilt that hangs on my living room wall as a backdrop, and took several shots, not the easiest thing to do when you are purposely holding your device above eye level.

Then, the fun of customizing began. I like my theme and don’t want to change it, but the header image is recommended to be 1600×220, which is difficult for me to get to from an image that is 640×480. (I can hear all you photographers out there chuckling.) After several attempts, I did manage to get a new header image saved. It’s…okay. I wish my tagline showed up better, but at least the image itself is clearer – and perhaps even recognizable as the top of my silver-haired head.

At the very least, I know I didn’t violate anyone’s copyright by sharing their image when I shouldn’t have.

Please comment with any opinions,advice , or encouragement you want to share.

– JC with the silver hair

Update:  I managed to finally put a header image on the Top of JC’s Mind Facebook page. It is similar to the one here, but not the same shot. Check it out (and consider liking my page if you haven’t already)!

new follower record

Thanks to the combination of my SoCS post and my 500(ish) follower post, which was re-blogged by OM of HarsH ReaLiTy, I set a new record for followers on August 16: eight, breaking my old record of seven.

Thanks, everyone! Now I am up to 510!

500(ish) followers!

The most popular topic among bloggers is blogging! I admit that, while I read a lot of posts on blogging, I don’t often write one, but today I will because I have reached 500 followers for Top of JC’s Mind!

Or at least, 500ish. The numbers are a bit squishy. The number following through WordPress is 389 with email, Facebook, and twitter followers pushing the number up to 500. That means that some people who follow me on more than one platform are double or triple counted, but….

Let’s just say 500! Yay!

I want to take this opportunity to thank all my followers, especially those who visit regularly. There are even a few who comment regularly; thank you for keeping me from feeling as though I am talking to myself.

I also want to thank all the blogs I follow – all 750 of them. Some I get daily or weekly digest emails and visit frequently; others I don’t get to very often. You have all helped me to learn about blogging and gifted me with beauty, humor, poetry, stories, travelogues, photos, thought, and heart.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart and the Top of JC’s Mind,
Joanne

The Blog Post Share Project – Share the Love

Jay Dee is helping out other bloggers by encouraging us to share each other’s work through social media. Are you ready to help out in this way?

Jay Dee's avatarI Read Encyclopedias for Fun

I was thinking yesterday, I’m usually giving blog posts I like a comment and a like. I get plenty of those myself on this blog. But there are other ways to show your appreciation to blogs and bloggers.

So, how about this? Whenever you see a blog post you like, don’t just like it. Leave a comment if there’s something you want to say, of course. But why not use social media to help get the word out to others about that post? At the bottom of each post in a blog, there should be buttons you can click on for various social media. Twitter is great, if you use it. Why not pin it on Pinterest? Or how about share it with your friends on Facebook? Or even Google+? If you think the post is really, really good, you could even share it on Reddit.

So, this is what…

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